… or "An insight into personal family history research"

Those of you who are not able to afford subscriptions to multiple genealogy sites may have been jealous of those who have access to the very useful 1911 census data at FindMyPast.

However, Ancestry recently announced that they will be rolling out 1911 data this year. Until such time as actual schedules are available, they have started providing images of the Census Enumerator Summary Books. These give house-by-house summaries of the parish, along with head-of-household’s name and the number of male & female residents. This is a nice way to locate your ancestors’ abode, and maybe even determine that their property still exists. Of course, if the address no longer exists, it helps determine where it was in the village or town of today…

I was surprised the day I looked up my mother’s great-grandparents on the 1911 census. The data indicated that there were an additional three children who had not survived to 1911. But who were they, when were they born and when did they die? I was not looking forward to trawling through BMD records to locate them!

Well, the first question has been partly answered – two of the three children were a daughter called Ino Kate HOLLANDS, and a son called Uno Frank HOLLANDS. What unusual names!

How did I find them? Via the 1891 census on FindMyPast ! However, the data showed why I may not have found the household previously via Ancestry – the family was listed as HOLLARD! Thanks to FindMyPast’s improved correction submission system, I have now had this corrected.

After trying so desperately to locate the family of my dad’s uncle Walter BALDOCK, I may have hit on something …

I had been searching Kent records (particularly Thanet, where they had lived) for marriage records, with no luck. I knew his wife was known as Jessie, but this could have come from anywhere. Nevertheless, I finally gained the patience to search systematically through Ancestry and FindMyPast.

And there I found it! Uncle Wally and Aunt Jessie were married in Norfolk – Erpingham district, to be precise! Walter A BALDOCK married Jessie I ABRAM !

Now armed with a maiden name, I also found six daughters; we already knew the names of some, but this confirmed things, along with birth quarter-dates, a marriage and two grandsons. Of course, all this has yet to be verified.

I now hope to get the marriage certificate, and plan to further investigate the children to seek out possible marriages, further grandchildren, and maybe locate a family member living somewhere.

The Norfolk marriage is spooky, given my belief that the BALDOCK family may have some ancestry there. Maybe Jessie was from Norfolk? Or perhaps she was a Cromer seaside holiday romance? The certificate will help …

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